Wednesday, 14 November 2012

Lao Tzu, the Patriarch of Taoism

There are two paths leading to oneness
with the Tao. The first is the path of acceptance. Affirm everyone and
everything. Freely extend you goodwill and virtue in every direction,
regardless of circumstances. Embrace all things as part of the Harmonious
Oneness, and then you will begin to perceive it. The second path is that of
denial. Recognize that everything you see and think is a falsehood, an
illusion, a veil over the truth. Peel all the veils away, and you will arrive
at the Oneness. Though these paths are entirely different, they will deliver
you to the same place: spontaneous awareness of the Great Oneness. -Lao
Tzu

Do you think that you can clear your mind
by sitting constantly in silent meditation? This makes your mind narrow, not
clear. Integral awareness is fluid and adaptable, present in all places and at
all times. That is true meditation. The Tao is clear and simple, and it doesn't
avoid the world. -Lao Tzu

Acting without design, occupying oneself
without making a business of it, finding the great in what is small and the
many in the few, repaying injury with kindness, effecting difficult things
while they are easy, and managing great things in their beginnings: this is the
method of Tao. - Lao
Tzu

Chanting is no more holy than listening to
the murmur of a stream, counting prayer beads no more sacred than simply
breathing. . . . If you wish to attain oneness with the Tao, don't get caught
up in spiritual superficialities. - Lao Tzu

Understand this if nothing else: spiritual
freedom and oneness with the Tao are not randomly bestowed gifts, but the
rewards of conscious self-transformation and self-evolution. - Lao Tzu

Worlds and particles, bodies and beings,
time and space: All are transient expressions of the Tao. - Lao Tzu

Everything comes from That which
cannot be named nor described because it its beyond man’s comprehension; but
for convenience it is called Tao. - Lao Tzu

2 comments:

You are right. There's much to think about here. Simple but profound, these words would mean nothing - unless one has affinity with Tao, or unless one has some knowledge of spirituality, or is a practitional of spirituality.